View full sizeFormer Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine arrives at the Baldwin County Courthouse Monday morning, Dec. 6, 2010, in Bay Minette, Ala., for his murder trial. He was sentenced on Monday, April 25, 2011, on an unrelated federal gun charge. (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)

MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge here today sentenced former Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine to 15 months behind bars and ordered him to be taken to jail immediately.

U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade today accepted arguments that Nodine has not taken full responsibility for the offense he pleaded guilty to in October — being an unlawful drug user in possession of firearms.

Granade sentenced Nodine to 15 months and ordered him to be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 3 years after the sentence. She also ordered that he receive treatment for drug abuse.

Federal marshals handcuffed Nodine and took him to the Baldwin County Corrections Center, where he will remain until the Bureau of Prisons determines where he will serve the sentence. Under federal law, he will have to serve at least 85 percent of the prison term, part of which likely will be a federal halfway house.

After determining the range of punishment under advisory guidelines Granade said that she saw no reason to depart from that range. The only thing that set the case apart, she said, was Nodine's notoriety as a former elected official.

"Other than that, this is a run-of-the-mill case," she said.

Prosecutors brought the charge last year following the Mother’s Day shooting death of Nodine’s mistress, Angel Downs. The day after Downs died outside her Gulf Shores condominium, Nodine gave 2 handguns to a pair of Mobile County government attorneys who had gone to the commissioner’s house to check on him.

View full sizeDefense attorney Gordon Armstrong speaks to media gathered outside the U.S. federal courthouse in Mobile, Ala. Monday, April 25, 2011. A federal judge sentenced Armstrong's client, former Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine, to 15 months behind bars and ordered him to be taken to jail immediately. (Press-Register/G.M. Andrews)

Neither gun was used in the Downs shooting, but federal prosecutors charged him under a statute that prohibits an unlawful drug user from possessing firearms. In his guilty plea, Nodine admitted that he had the guns during 2009 when he was smoking marijuana and taking large amounts of the painkiller Lortab.

A Baldwin County jury deadlocked in December on murder and stalking charges in connection with Downs’ death, and District Attorney Hallie Dixon has not yet decided whether to retry him.

She did reiterate the family's desire to see him retried on the murder charge.

Nodine’s federal conviction means that he loses his right to vote, serve on a jury, hold office and possess firearms.

Attorneys this afternoon argued over whether Nodine deserved a sentencing break under advisory guidelines typically given to defendants who plead guilty. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gloria Bedwell argued that Nodine, during an interview with a probation officer preparing a presentence report, attempted to minimize his drug use.

Bedwell pointed out that Nodine denied that he was addicted to Lortab when questioned by the probation officer. Nodine, 47, told the judge that he believed the probation officer was asking whether he addicted at that time — not during the period when he had the guns.

Granade said regardless of her decision on the guideline range, it would not change her opinion that Nodine deserved 15 months in prison. That likely makes it extremely unlikely that Nodine’s announced appeal will succeed.

Granade said during the hearing that Nodine’s mental state on the morning he surrendered his guns “indicates why it is important for drug users not to have firearms,” she said. “He could have easily hurt himself.”

Defense attorney Gordon Armstrong offered 4 character witnesses on Nodine’s behalf, including Maj. Ted Morris, area commander of The Salvation Army office; a developer and a pair of church leaders.